ILWAUKEE — As bad as the Marquette
University men's basketball team looked in the early part
of last night's game at the Bradley Center, the University
of Massachusetts managed to look even worse. Much
worse.

It's not easy for a team to miss 17 of its first 19 shots,
and still lead at halftime by 10. But with the help of a
strong rebounding presence and a UMass offense that
looked lost for too long, Marquette did it in a 68-64
victory that threw the first splash of cold water on this
UMass season of high hopes.

"I told the team if we didn't win the battle of the boards,
we'd lose the game," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said. A
team whose rebounding had supposedly been restored
this season lost a 43-30 rebounding battle, including
26-13 in the first half — when Marquette took 34
shots to UMass' 16.

Rhymer and Eric Williams fouled out in a game that had
55 fouls and 65 free throws. The Minutemen (1-1) have
never started 2-0 under Flint.

This year offered the best chance to do it, but a hapless
offense doomed their chances as Marquette (1-1) took
a 29-19 halftime lead. Yet as poorly as they played in
the first half, the Minutemen still came close to winning.

A 3-point basket by Monty Mack, whose first game
following a suspension resulted in 16 points on 4-for-13
shooting, made it 60-59 with 1:03 left. With Marquette
leading 64-61, Ronell Blizzard was called for a foul on a
screen that killed a UMass offensive possession with
18.4 seconds left.

Jonathan DePina, who played an outstanding game (13
points, three assists, no turnovers), hit a 3-point shot to
make it 66-64 with five seconds left. But Marquette's
Brian Barone hit two free throws to clinch it.

Barone made his first two free throws, but had to
reshoot the second one because a small object had been
thrown out of the stands as he shot. That doesn't happen
often to the home team, but Barone calmly made another
one.

Shannon Crooks scored 19 points, and foul-plagued
Jackie Rogers had 15 for UMass. Winston Smith, who
has 11 assists and only two turnovers this year, had a
career-high six assists.

But the Minutemen were only 15 for 26 from the line,
and is barely over 50 percent (25 for 48) this year. With
tighter games being called this year, that could be a killer
— and last night it was, since Marquette hit 30 of 39.

"It's frustrating, because we're not making foul shots and
we're getting outrebounded," said Mack, who said an
ankle he had bruised in practice felt fine. "I don't think
we were ourselves. We looked a lot better in practice."

An 18-2 first-half run gave Marquette a 25-13 lead.
UMass went without a basket for a 6:30 stretch, and
Marquette also won most of the loose-ball battles and
found its shooting touch after that terrible 2-for-19 start.

The Golden Eagles' best player, senior guard Brian
Wardle, twisted an ankle late in the half, but returned
and finished with 26 points.

OUL TROUBLE: The foul calls are coming at a dizzying rate, and it's becoming clear that the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team doesn't know what to do about it. It didn't cost them last night's 68- 64 loss to Marquette, but it's having a profound effect. UMass coach Bruiser Flint, who felt good about his team's depth this year, found himself playing power forward Ronell Blizzard  who has averaged only seven minutes per game as a collegian  in last night's critical final seconds at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Flint said Blizzard was in there because he understood the play being called. But the 6-foot-8 Blizzard, who first became needed when the other big men ran into foul trouble, was called for a costly blocking foul with 18.4 seconds left. The broader issue throughout college basketball is whether players who are used to physical play can adjust to the strictly-called games the NCAA has told its officials to enforce. "I think it's hard, because that's the way we play," UMass guard Monty Mack said. "If a guy comes across the lane, we bump him." Kitwana Rhymer and Eric Williams fouled out last night. Micah Brand and Jackie Rogers had four fouls each, though Brand, a sophomore, still had a career-high four blocks in 16 minutes. "That's the way we play - we bump you," Flint said. "But some of the calls are ridiculous. You rub a guy on the back, and they call it. Luckily, we've got enough guys. But the teams that have only five or six guys  they'll be done." But if the Minutemen don't make better use of their time on the foul line, they'll be done, too. The increase in calls makes the bonus situation come faster, which makes foul shooting more crucial than ever. "It's a foul- fest, which is bad for us, because we're not shooting foul shots very well," Flint said. "I feel for the refs," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "That's the mandate (from the NCAA). They have to call it this way."

ON GUARD: In his first game back after the end of his suspension, Mack scored 16 points. Closely guarded by Cordell Henry and Brian Barone, Mack shot 4 for 13. Mack now has 1,633 career points, fifth all-time at UMass. Tony Barbee (1,643) is fourth. Among active Division I players, only Centenary's Ronnie McCollum (1,737) has more points than Mack.

ILWAUKEE - Rebounding was supposed to be a strength of the
2000-01 UMass Minutemen. Instead, they were outplayed
considerably on the boards.

They were supposed to have more options on offense. However, they
shot 43.8 percent from the floor, including 31 percent during an ugly
first half.

Ultimately, UMass lost to Marquette last night, 68-64, in part because
of its horrid first-half play, and also due to the Minutemen frontcourt's
inability to cope with the NCAA's latest dictum of referees being more
strict about whistling fouls.

Kitwana Rhymer, a perpetual foul-trouble victim last season, fouled
out last night after only 12 minutes of action. His backup, Eric
Williams, lasted for 19 minutes. Jackie Rogers and Micah Brand each
had four fouls.

All four played back on their heels for most of the night, helping to
create Marquette's hefty 43-30 rebounding edge.

Monty Mack scored 16 but only hit four field goals.

The result was a waste of Monty Mack's return after a three-game
suspension (two exhibitions plus Saturday's Iona opener). The senior
guard scored 16 points on shaky 4-for-13 shooting, to go along with
15 from Rogers, 19 from Shannon Crooks and 13 second-half points
from Jonathan DePina, arguably the best UMass player on the floor
last night.

Not that it counted for much when Golden Eagles guard Brian Barone
drained four free throws over the last 18 seconds. Marquette guard
Brian Wardle's 26 points would stand as the game's most
overpowering number.

``We weren't our usual selves - we looked a lot better in practice,''
said Mack, who reported no trouble with his healing right ankle. ``But
the foul trouble took a lot out of us. It kept us from being
aggressive.''

He must have been listening to the coach.

``In the first half they out-scrambled us, and that's what got them
the lead,'' said Bruiser Flint, whose team dipped to 1-1. ``I told our
team that if we didn't win the battle of the boards, then we wouldn't
win. But with all of those fouls, I almost didn't have enough guys to
send out there. And we have more depth than a lot of teams.

``It was a foul-fest out there. It was ridiculous. My guys picked up
fouls right away.''

But the officials did call things tightly both ways. Each team sank into
penalty situations early in each half. The difference was that
Marquette (1-1) shot 30-of-39 from the line, including a
near-impeccable 8-for-9 over the last two minutes. The Minutemen
countered by only hitting 15 of their 26 chances.

Last-minute trifectas from Mack and DePina couldn't overcome a
Marquette team that simply didn't make mistakes down the stretch.

After losing the lead early in the first half, the Minutemen finally came
back behind the combined forces of the backcourt - with Flint
resorting to a three-guard offense - and Rogers. Mack got them the
closest with a trey that cut the Marquette lead to 60-59 with 1:03
left. But the Golden Eagles dug in, starting with a Oluoma Nnamaka
three-point play for a 63-59 lead, and survived on the strength of
three trips by Barone to the line in the last 26 seconds - one
courtesy of an illegal screen by Ronnell Blizzard.

``The kid hasn't set a screen in the four years he's been here, and
now they're calling him for that?'' lamented Flint.

ILWAUKEE - Jack Leaman woke up to 25-degree weather with snow
flurries yesterday morning, and the names of Marquette and UMass
featured on The Bradley Center marquee.

The former UMass men's basketball
coach, now a color commentator on
UMass radio broadcasts, remembers
better than anyone the only other
time UMass played Marquette.

The Golden Eagles broke a tie with
two minutes left to beat the
Minutemen, 62-55, in the first round
of the 1970 NIT in Madison Square
Garden.

Marquette had Dean Meminger, UMass
had Julius Erving, and the stars lived
up to their hype. So did the opposing
coach - Al McGuire.

``Al McGuire, who is really sick now
(with leukemia), was a unique
individual,'' Leaman, pointing out the
fact that McGuire actually turned
down an NCAA berth in 1970 to play in
the 16-team NIT field, said prior to last night's game.

It is the last time a coach actually snubbed the NCAA tournament,
which was on the verge of eclipsing the NIT at the time.

``Marquette was the second-best team in the country that year,''
said Leaman. ``The NCAA was going to put them in Denton, Texas,
instead of Dayton (Ohio), and (McGuire) wasn't going to have any
part of it. So he called the NIT. That shows the power that the NIT
still had back then. But he had a great club. And that was Julius'
sophomore year.

``It was my first time in the NIT, and (McGuire) treated me really
well. But he was truly unique. The year we played them was really
the start of the run to a national title six years later.''

The Mullins Center isn't the only place with attendance problems.

Marquette coach Tom Crean was a bit dismayed when the final
attendance was announced for the Golden Eagles' home loss to South
Alabama in the first round of the Preseason NIT. Approximately 6,000
fans showed up - bad news for a coach who has come up with a
number of inventive ways to build local interest.

His ``Doughnuts, Crean and Coffee'' conferences with the community
was one such effort. Another was Crean's rather novel idea to host a
series of basketball clinics exclusively for women.

ILWAUKEE - Ronell Blizzard didn't
do anything to end his permanent
residency in University of Massachusetts
coach Bruiser Flint's doghouse Monday
night.

With 18.4 seconds left and the
Minutemen trailing Marquette, 64-61,
UMass pushed the ball ahead to Monty
Mack in the corner for an attempt at a
game-tying 3-pointer. But before the
senior guard could pull the trigger, a
whistle blew. Away from the play,
Blizzard had stuck out his hip and
bumped Brian Barone.

"The guy called a block," Flint said.
"Blizzard hasn't screened anybody the four years he's been in school. I put him
out there because he knows the play from that position and the other guys that
knew the play from that position had fouled out."

Barone hit both free throws and the Minutemen never got the ball within one
possession again as they fell, 68-64, to the Golden Eagles (1-1) in a foul-filled
contest at the Bradley Center.

With the officials calling a much tighter game per order of the NCAA prior to
the season, the UMass big men got into foul trouble early. When Jackie
Rogers was whistled for a push with 11:51 left, he joined Eric Williams and
Kitwana Rhymer with four fouls. As a result, the Minutemen struggled to
rebound, losing the board battle, 43-30.

"I told our team that if we didn't win the battle of the boards, we weren't
winning the game," Flint said.

"In the first half they out-scrambled us. When your best rebounder (Rhymer)
only plays 11 minutes, that doesn't help. The guy was the third leading
rebounder in the conference."

"It's a foul-fest right now and that's bad for me because my team's not
shooting them very well right now," Flint said.

"Some of the calls are ridiculous," Flint continued. "There were 55 fouls in the
game. My guys picked up fouls right away and that just kills your
aggressiveness."

Brian Wardle put his entire offensive repertoire on display before a national
TV audience. The Marquette guard scored driving to the baseline, leaning in
the lane, from the free-throw line and behind the 3-point arc. His 26 points led
all scorers.

Mack struggled in his return from a three-game suspension after being
arrested for shoplifting. He scored 16 points, but shot only 4-for-13 from the
floor. Shannon Crooks led UMass with 19 points, while Rogers (15 points)
and Jonathan DePina (13) finished in double figures.

UMass (1-1) returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday against Holy Cross at the
Worcester Centrum.

"I think we have to put it behind us," Mack said of Monday's game. "We've
got to concentrate on the little things we didn't do tonight."

The Minutemen got the better of a defensive struggle early, leading 7-2 five
minutes into the game, but their offense went from ineffective to nearly invisible
as the Eagles scored five straight to tie it, 7-7.

A dunk by Rogers and a jumper by Mack made it 11-7. But Marquette
clamped down on defense and found its shooting stroke, reeling off an 18-2
run to take a 25-13 lead.

With Marquette fans shouting "DVD" in reference to the shoplifting case,
Mack made one of two free throws. Rogers scored on a lay-in from Williams,
ending a 6:29 drought without a field goal for UMass with 1:24 left in the half.

Crooks followed that with two made free throws to make it 25-18.

After Wardle hit a leaner in the lane, Williams hit one of two free throws with
23.6 seconds left.

Marquette called time out to set up for the last shot, but UMass cut off Scott
Merritt's move to the basket as time wound down. He kicked the ball to
Barone, who caught and fired it while in the air. It dropped in to give
Marquette a 29-19 halftime lead.

Riding impressive play from DePina, who scored all his points in the second
half, the Minutemen chipped away at the Marquette lead, but the Golden
Eagles made 23 free throws after intermission to hold off UMass.

ILWAUKEE - You have to hand it to the
NCAA. The organization that isn't exactly synonymous with good ideas and
smart decisions is well on its way to ruining college basketball this season.

Each year prior to the season, the grand pooh-bahs in Indianapolis come up
with goofy experimental rules for the preseason tournaments and new
officiating mandates.

The only experimental rule to make a significant improvement in the game was
the addition of the 3-pointer, 15 years ago. It seems like the rules committee
feels it needs to change things just to justify its existence. How else do you
explain experiments such as having the lane shaped like a rhombus and giving
each team 10 8-second time outs?

This year's focus has been on officiating. The czars have commanded referees
to call games much tighter, focusing on hand checks, screening and rough
play.

The result has been a sport with more whistles than field hockey and less
action than baseball.

Anything physical is getting whistled. It used to be possible to make contact
without fouling. Not anymore.

Also, officials get so used to blowing the whistle that they start to bring the
instrument to their mouths before any infraction has even occurred.

In Monday night's University of Massachusetts vs. Marquette game, 54 fouls
were called. That is far more than in any Minuteman game last year, even
when teams were forced to foul late in the game.

This is not the referees' fault, although fans are certain to blame them for it.
The men in stripes are just acting on orders from above.

The NCAA thinks tighter-called games will eventually lead to a smoother
offensive game. It's a nice goal, but a completely unrealistic one. You can't
expect today's players and coaches to unlearn decades of acceptable physical
basketball in the first few months of a season.

So what we're left with is long, boring games lacking any semblance of flow.
Just two years ago, the NCAA considered switching to four-quarter games
because they thought the game needed to be speeded up. That's apparently
not a priority anymore, because these foul-filled free-throw contests drag on
endlessly.

Unless the NCAA backs off on its own, the people with the best chance of
convincing it to do so are TV executives. On a typical "Big Monday," ESPN
runs several games back-to-back. With 50-plus fouls per game, most of these
games will spill over their expected time frames. ESPN, CBS and others pay
the NCAA an awful lot of cash. Even the NCAA might be smart enough not
to bite the hand that pays it.

Without change, fans will stop watching, both in person and on TV.
Attendance at games already is down across the country. Dulling the product
is only going to make it worse.

The sports-governing body needs to stop tinkering. The game isn't perfect, but
at least it used to be a fun to watch. At some point, the NCAA needs to
administrate the way K.C. Jones once coached the Celtics - give the players
the ball and get out of the way.

he good news was that the Massachusetts men's basketball team had its big gun
back for last night's showdown with Marquette. The bad news? Officiating would
keep most of the Minuteman frontcourt shooting blanks against the Golden Eagles.

Despite the return of preseason Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Monty Mack to the
lineup, UMass fell prey to the referees' whistles against Marquette, and lost 68-64
at the Bradley Center. The two squads were flagged for 55 combined infractions
over the course of the contest, which was ultimately decided at the charity stripe.

"All my big guys either fouled out or were right there with four fouls," UMass Head
Coach Bruiser Flint said. "When we put them on the line, they made their foul
shots."

The Minutemen (1-1) won the opening tip and gained the upper hand on their hosts
behind deft early shooting from Mack. The off guard slid from behind a screen at
the right elbow and canned a three for his first points of the season, then picked
the pocket of Golden Eagle Brian Wardle and fed teammate Shannon Crooks for a
second trey.

Marquette (1-1) closed the early gap with aggressive post play that tied up the
Maroon and White defenders and sent the Eagles to the free throw line. MU
freshman Scott Merritt knocked down a pair of freebies to tie the game at 7-7 with
11:20 to play in the first half, in spite of the fact that his team had connected on
only two of 15 field goal attempts at that point.

The visitors roared right back to regain the lead, as UMass forward Eric Williams
blocked a lazy MU shot into the hands of Mack. The fifth-year senior rocketed
down the court and dished to a cutting Jackie Rogers, whose flush put the
Minutemen back on top.

With the score knotted at 11, Wardle got the Eagles going with a long deuce from
the top of the key, and Tom Crean's crew wouldn't look back until it had completed
a 14-1 run and had taken a 21-12 lead. The Eagles got big hoops from Merritt and
Wardle along the way, as well as a monster two-handed slam from junior forward
Jon Harris.

The Bradley Center crowd sucked in its collective breath when, with less than a
minute to go in the half, Wardle landed in a heap on the left baseline after coming
down on Rogers' foot following a left-handed scoop shot. The senior limped
tentatively off the court, but would return to wreak further havoc on the Maroon and
White in the second set, finishing the contest with 26 points. MU reserve guard
Brian Barone stuck an erratic foul-line jumper just as time ran out on the first half,
sending the Minutemen into the locker room with a 29-19 halftime deficit.

Both teams must have gotten a rousing speech in the locker room, as the two
squads came out with guns blazing in the second half. The Minutemen also began
controlling the glass much better, after being out-rebounded 25-13 over the game's
first 20 minutes.

The Maroon and White battled back to within five, 40-35, when Rogers nailed a
close quarters put-back at the 13:20 mark. The play followed a picture-perfect
transition on which Rogers fed a cutting Crooks for an easy two.

Inspired floor play by tri-captain Jonathan DePina kept it close over the game's final
five minutes, as he converted two free throws inside the 2:40 mark to trim the
Marquette lead to 57-54. The Boston native then hit a miracle three with five
seconds on the clock to pull the Minutemen back within a pail at 66-64. But
Barone calmly stroked his ensuing two foul shots to ice the win for the Golden
Eagles, who capitalized on 30 of 39 free throws over the course of the victory.

"They scored 25 points from the foul line in the second half," Flint said. "We had
more field goals than they did, but they made 30 foul shots."

UMass got nice numbers from Crooks (19 points), Rogers (15) and DePina (13),
but managed only a single point from the frontcourt quintet of Williams, Kit
Rhymer, Micah Brand and Ronell Blizzard. All four frontcourt stalwarts found
themselves mired in foul trouble (a combined 16 personals).

After opening its season last week with a disappointing loss
to mid-major South Alabama, Marquette came back and
played one of it's best games in the Tom Crean era Monday
night in the Bradley Center.

Eric Williams gets up close and personal with Marquette's Oluoma Nnamaka.

Holding off the University of Massachusetts, 68-64, doesn't
erase all that ails Marquette. In fact, the poor shooting
problem still plagues the Golden Eagles.

This time, however, they had an answer: Hustle.

Despite shooting 32.7% compared to UMass' 43.8%. MU
won on the boards, 43-30, and won at the line, converting
30 of 39 free-throw attempts.

"You hold a team to 32 percent from the field, you usually
win those games," said UMass coach Bruiser Flint. "That's
being for real, now. But they needed to get to the line and
they knocked them down."

Holding on by a thread, 60-59, after a late Monty Mack three-pointer, MU refused to relinquish the
lead it had maintained the entire second half.

Junior forward Oluoma Nnamaka drove straight down the lane and scored an important basket with 50
seconds remaining and capped the play with a free throw.

From then on, senior point guard Brian Barone, a career 59% free-throw shooter, hit five of six
pressure-cooker free throws in the final 26 seconds to seal the victory for the Golden Eagles.

"He showed what kind of leader he is; he showed what kind of confidence he has," said Crean. "He's a
fifth-year guy; he's been through it and he's very hungry to succeed."

There were other heroes.

Senior Brian Wardle, playing on a tender and sprained left ankle, came through with 26 points.
Nnamaka added 13, and shot 9 of 9 from the free-throw line. MU also held up without center Scott
Merritt, who injured his ankle with 13 minutes remaining, and did not return.

Barone and junior point guard Cordell Henry held potential UMass All-American Monty Mack to 16
points on 4-of-13 shooting. It was an ugly game with 55 fouls called and seven players hampered with
four or more.

The buildup to this thrilling finish was as entertaining as it was bewildering.

MU came out of the gate hitting just two of its first 19 shots in the first 12 minutes. Soon after, the
Golden Eagles found their pot of gold in second, third and fourth-effort shots.

"We're a blue collar team," said Crean. "We have to understand we're not going to be a team that's
going to be all flash and dash, we're not a finesse team, we're not a team that's going the 100 point
barrier, or maybe even the 80-point barrier very much right now. We have to do the very best with
what we have. And that's what they did."

The Golden Eagles raged through a 12-1 run to take a commanding 25-13 lead with 2 minutes 28
seconds left until halftime. How they did it, with offensive rebounds, was critical, since this MU team
has never been a good shooting group.

Merritt scored a sweet three-foot baseline jumper after running down two Odartey Blankson misses.
Blankson collected the board on a missed Merritt free throw that led to a Jon Harris dunk.

When Wardle scored on a fast break, the entire MU bench was on its feet screaming. Nnamaka
rewarded them seconds later with an offensive rebound and putback. Didn't matter if the Golden Eagles
had their shots rejected or stalled out with the incessant whistle blowing, they kept pounding the
boards, gobbling up any crumbs they could.

Fourteen of MU's first 26 rebounds were offensive.

"I thought in the first half, they just really outscrambled us," said Flint. "There was a five-minute period
where they just came away with every loose ball, every loose rebound. That's what got them the lead."

The victory helped soothe the loss to South Alabama.

"We were all disappointed after that loss," said Wardle. "Guys didn't get much sleep that night. After
the lead at halftime today, we all looked at each other, like 'Remember the feeling we had after that
South Alabama game. The disappointment.' It seemed that everyone recalled that feeling and we knew
we couldn't let that happen again."

n the brief intervals between free throws Monday night, Marquette University
won its first basketball game of the season, and the noise was deafening.

Some of it even came from the customers, but you'll have to forgive visiting
Massachusetts if it left here thinking the Bradley Center was an 18,000-seat
train station. The next whistle the Minutemen hear could send them screaming
into Boston Harbor.

Kit Rhymer gets ready to take a swipe at John Mueller.

The visitors' last chance evaporated with an offensive foul, a term they would consider redundant.
When a team is credited with 10 fewer field goals than personals, it's either criminally inclined or
terminally unacquainted with college basketball's new rules interpretations.

Brian Wardle scored 26 points for Marquette, establishing him as the fourth-most active man on the
floor. Jim Burr, Art McDonald and Jim Jenkins made Marquette's eager senior look like he was
mainlining Valium, but they had the advantage of wearing stripes.

A total of 55 fouls and 65 free throws blemished an enthusiastic effort by the Golden Eagles, who won
the kind of pre-conference game they should have been play ing for the last 10 years.

It might take a while for the faithful to notice that
Marquette is bringing in opponents worth paying for.
They've been fooled before.

Math lesson

Monday night's crowd, announced optimistically at 7,941,
got its money's worth, particularly if the entertainment was
priced by the hour. It takes time to stage a parade.

In this case, the procession was restricted to the distance
between the free throw lines, and the Golden Eagles were
clearly the better marchers. They made 30 of 39 attempts
from the stripe, compared with UMass' 15 for 26.

In a 68-64 game, that will have an impact on the outcome.
And Bruiser Flint was perfectly capable of doing the math.

"It's a foul fest out there," said the Massachusetts coach.
"That was bad for us, because we're not shooting foul
shots very well right now. Some of the calls . . . I mean it's
ridiculous. You rub a guy on the back, and it's a call.

"There were 55 fouls in the game. Fifty-five. We're lucky we've got enough guys at least to keep it
more even. My guys picked up fouls right away, and then forget about it. That takes away your
aggressiveness."

Marquette's defense took away everything else in the first 20 minutes as the Mitten Men, er
Minutemen, stone fingered their way to nine turnovers.

These were favors gratefully accepted by the home team, which clanked 17 of its first 19 shots and still
trailed only, 11-9, with 7 minutes 40 seconds to go before intermission. This is as close to a pointless
exercise as college basketball is likely to get.

Any change would be an improvement, a cliche that would apply just as effectively to this year's revised
approach to infractions. NCAA legislators are hellbent on reducing physical play, and while they
remedy the disease, the game stands a good chance of dying from the cure.

Burr, McDonald and Jenkins were merely doing their job as it's been described to them, but if their
ardor for the task is matched coast-to-coast and all season long, nobody's going to want to watch.

Flint says his team is particularly vulnerable to the approach because it likes to swap bruises. If that's
true, imagine how the Michigan States and the Cincinnatis are going to cope.

Or Marquette for that matter. Crean is fond of calling his team "blue collar," which is a polite way of
saying its long on leaning and short on finesse.

"Everybody prides themselves on being somewhat physical," said the coach. "You've just got to do the
best you can do to play the game the way it's called."

That will work for a while, but this madness can't go on all year. At least Flint hopes not.

Asked if the NCAA will eventually adjust to reality, he said, "You're asking the wrong guy."